January 1, 2006 Hopedale History No. 51 Centennial Speech Thanks to Giancarlo BonTempo for sending me a Hopedale related story he came across. It was about a donation from Helen Draper, daughter of George Albert and Jessie Preston Draper, to Beria College in Kentucky. Here’s what the college website has to say about it. Mrs. Helen Draper Ayer of Massachusetts and later of California created a trust fund, The Draper Foundation, in memory of her Kentucky-born mother, Mrs. Jessie Preston Draper. She gave Berea $200,000 from this fund with the stipulation the money should be used to aid in educating students from Appalachia. Other gifts, including $50,000 given in memory of Henry C. Munger by his sister, brought the total to $340,000, with which this colonial-style structure was built in 1938 (modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia). It contains 24 classrooms and offices for teachers, reading rooms, campus ministry and the audio- visual aids department. A large projection room and a complete, electronically equipped language laboratory also are located at Draper. In June 2000, renovation began on the Draper Building tower for the installation of a 56-bell Carillon. The carillon is an instrument consisting of bells that can be played like a piano or organ. The musical instrument weighs 11 tons. The Berea College Carillon is the largest in Kentucky <><><><><><><><><><> I recently came across a speech given by Dick Moore at the time of the Hopedale centennial. It includes memories that will be familiar to some of you. Since it’s about 1700 words long, I’ve put just a bit of it here. . Hopedale’s Centennial Year - A Time to Remember, A Time for Hope An Address by Representative Richard T. Moore To the Hopedale Union Evangelical Church Men’s Brotherhood Communion Breakfast March 22, 1986 It seems like only yesterday… When Harold Hill and his Worcester Brass Band held concerts on Wednesday nights, and you could get a steamed hot dog for a quarter and popcorn from a Legionaire for a dime, and at a few minutes before 10 p.m. the band would strike up the National Anthem. When you could go to the town hall second floor auditorium to see the Blue Raiders basketball team, a high school play, or the Men’s Brotherhood minstrel show, and buy homemade fudge in the auditorium at all of these. When senior classes at Hopedale High held paper drives to earn money for that April trip to our nation’s capital, and excitedly planned for their outdoor graduation on the majestic front steps of the Community House. When there were Saturday afternoon movies for the kids at the Community House; and when that same shop bell that called their fathers to work at 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Draper Corporation, reminded the kids to be home and off the streets by 9 p.m. Or when Memorial Day parades seemed to include half of Hopedale while the rest of the town came out to watch; or when most of the town’s fathers and sons went to that big green wooden stadium at Draper Field to watch the best baseball outside of the pros in the old Blackstone Valley League. Yes…it seems like only yesterday. We all share memories of events, of buildings, of neighbors and loved ones so much a part of Hopedale and its special character, And in this, our town’s centennial year, events are planned to help us recall our heritage, and we can all remember… Of course, there’s no one in this audience who was part of that hope filled company of thirty-two men and women who moved into the old Jones place in the Dale in 1841 to establish “Fraternal Community, No. 1.” None of us ever knew Reverend Adin Ballou, that man of commanding presence, great intellectual ability, and a character above reproach, who the author of that classic, War and Peace, Count Leo Tolstoy called “The best writer that America has produced.” None of us ever knew those founders of the new town of Hopedale, led by George Draper and including my own great-uncle, Samuel Andrew, who, as constable, posted the warrant for that first town meeting. And it’s not likely that anyone here knew such luminaries as William F. Draper, Civil War general, congressman, and Ambassador to Italy or his brother, Eben S. Draper, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. But there were many we did know. After all, it seemed in Hopedale that you knew everybody and they knew you. Maybe it was Sam Kellogg or Tom Malloy or Chet Sanborn – You’d get to know them pretty fast if you were the mischievous type. Or maybe a Lucy Day, or Robert Bramhall, or Annie Slaney or Sewall Drisko, or Coach Carl Miner. Perhaps it was a Reverend Tegarden or Simpson or a Father Connellan or Pitroff. And we all were the better for having been touched by one or more of these people who genuinely cared about us and our town. Hopedale History Email Menu HOME |